We have already tested some products based on the Nvidia GT 240 GPU. Today we will examine another implementation of the GT 240 chip as it has been designed and released by Inno3D. The Inno3D GT 240 iChiLL edition features a more efficient cooler compared to Nvidia's generic design, in an effort to offer a more stable performance as the card comes slightly 'overclocked.'

The Inno3D GeForce GT 240 got the 'i-Chill' treatment with XStriker3. Uniquely designed for passive and active cooling solutions, the Xstriker3 was the first cooler specially designed for Inno3D i-Chill series - built to increase efficient air circulation for extreme gaming. The Inno3D i-Chill GT 240 also features faster core speeds; gold plated DVI+VGA+HDMI connectors for better signal quality; high-quality OS-CON capacitors; aluminum ramsinks to stabilize memory; full game bundles and 3 years warranty.

Inno3D i-Chill Xstricker3 is exclusively assembled with 3 main features which include:

Air Boost Technology - this is based on Bernoulli's Principle which states that during steady air pressure all air particles that pass any given point follow the same path at the same speed. Hence increase and decrease in the same velocity occurs simultaneously with air pressure or a change in the airflow gravitational potential energy.

Heatpipe Technology - features copper base heatpipes filled with liquid material that extends directly from the GPU center to provide heat conductivity and vaporizes heat transfer. The Aluminum fins are specially designed to allow air flow pass through easily and remove heat efficiently.

Silent Cooler with large Air Flow - features combination of passive and active cooling solutions. The silent cooling fan allows air circulation from the center and sides of the card and is built with systematic noise reduction (Fan Speed: 2800rpm Dimension: 7cm Airflow: 16.2 CFM Noise: 28.5dB)

The Inno3D GT 240 iChiLL edition promises to offer a higher performance taking advantage of its 50MHz higher frequency for the core, compared to a reference GT240 solution. It is obvious that the overclocking here is not that high to make a ny significant difference during game play but still, we have to see the benchmarks later on to come up[ with a safe conclusion.

GeForce
GT 220

Radeon
HD 4670

GeForce
GT 240

Inno3D
GT 240 iChiLL

GeForce
9600 GT

GeForce
9800 GT

Shader units

48

320

96

96

64

112

ROPs

8

8

8

8

16

16

GPU

GT216

RV730

GT215

GT215

G94

G92

Transistors

486M

512M

727M

727M

505M

754M

Memory Size

512 MB /
1024 MB

512 MB

512 MB /
1024 MB

512 MB

512 MB

512 MB

Memory Bus Width

128 bit

128 bit

128 bit

128 bit

256 bit

256 bit

Core Clock

625 MHz

750 MHz

550 MHz

600 MHz

650 MHz

600 MHz

Memory Clock

790 MHz

1000 MHz

1700 MHz

1800 MHz

900 MHz

900 MHz

Price

$69 - $79

$67

$99

$150

$80

$90

- Retail package

The Inno3D GT 240 iChill XS3 comes in a medium-sized retail box, which is easily recognizable design of the Inno3D iChill products. At the time this article was written, we couldn't find an online price got the product. However, it will not cost you more than €130 Euro (including VAT) since Inno3D has been always following competitive pricing for its products.

The graphics card is well packaged into an anti-static bag. The box also includes a printed manual, a CD-ROM with drivers/software and the retail version of "Alone In The Dark" game. No extra connectors are provided since the card is offering all the available output ports.

The board of the card is not any different than what we have seen with other GT 240 graphics cards, besides the large GPU cooler of course. Later we will see how this GPU cooler performs, although it seems that it does not cover the memory area on the board.

The Inno3D GT 240 iChiLL XS3 has gold-plated outputs that are supposed to introduce less signal noise and of course offers DSub, DVI-D and HDMI outputs allowing you to easily connect it to you monitor.

After installation, the GPU-Z utility confirms the card's specifications. The GPU core runs
at 600MHz, the memory at 1800MHz and the Shaders at 1340MHz - much lower than the Gainward GT 240 GS edition we have already tested. Probably this would also affect overall performance as well.